right now on "andrea mitchell reports" -- why did they do it? from his hospital bed, dzhokhar tsarnaev tells interrogators he and his brother were motivated by religion and acted alone. learning their bomb-making from the internet. today, the lawyer for the wife of tamerlan tsarnaev says she was shocked by her husband and brother-in-law's actions. in dagestan, the boys' mother, still in denial. >> i am mother. i have -- you know, i know my kids. i know my kids. i really my kids would never get involved into anything like that. >> in the boston area, local police are now taking a closer look into a possible link between older brother, tamerlan tsarnaev, and a 2011 unsolved triple homicide. and local police are also taking a look at what links there may have been. in canada, two men charged with plotting to blow up a passenger

train between toronto and new york make their first appearances in court while on capitol hill senator charles grassley keeps raising the boston plot as he opposes the timetable for immigration reform. >> the tragic events that occurred in boston and the potential terrorist attacks of the u.s. canadian railroad are reminders that our immigration system is directly related to our sovereignty and national security matters. and guess who is coming to dinner? the president hosts the women of the senate, senator kirsten gillenbrand is here to preview why she suggested the get-together. we now know that the surviving boston marathon suspect is cooperating with prosecutors. we know more about what he is communicating also to them. nbc news justice correspondent, pete williams is on the beat. joining me now from the news room. what do we know from all of the filings about what he is telling the interrogators and the way he is communicating and what his

motivations were? >> well the court filings don't disclose anything about what he's saying although we are now told that his condition is improving. he went to the hospital in serious, but stable condition. and today authorities say he has improved to fair condition. so he is getting better. the transcript of the hearing indicated that he nodded most of his answers, except one when he was asked if he could afford a lawyer, when he spoke the word no. but obviously not very loudly. because the judge had to make sure that that's in fact what he said. but andrea, what we're told is that he was cooperative during the first phase of this questioning. that he said that he and his brother thought this up on their own. that they were not under the direction or control or in any way in touch with terrorists overseas. that they got the recipe for the bomb from the internet, specifically the al qaeda magazine called "inspire" which has published a couple of articles on how to build bombs in pressure cookers. which is what the fbi says the

two boston bombs were and a third bomb found at the scene of the watertown shooting. and as for their motive, he says that they were both, they both become deeply religious, they were opposed to the u.s. operations in iraq and, iran, iraq and afghanistan. and that that was the reason they decided to do this. which he said they came up with on their own. >> and pete, we've seen now more images, some dramatic images are coming in from that night of the shootout, the video of what actually transpired that night. it was pretty remarkable. the coordination among state, local and federal officials as well. and some of the images seem to show -- more precisely there as you can see, what was going down between the suspects and the authorities. >> well frankly, andrea, these pictures raise some questions in our mind. because we've got to figure out who those two figures are that you saw at the front of the car. because the account we had at

the time was, that only one of them, the older brother, tamerlan tsarnaev, got out of the car. but if you see that picture, you see both of them out of the car. and we've got to try to straighten that out. whether in fact that's the two brothers outside the suv that they hijacked. so you know, that raises some more questions. >> what about the fbi and the questions that are being raised? some questions were raised on immigration hearing today of janet napolitano and she acknowledged that despite a misspelling of the name by actually the russian airline, that they and homeland security were pinged when tamerlan tsarnaev left the country. but she said that the fbi investigation into him had expired by the time he returned. so they did not know when he returned. is there, i mean i know the fbi is going to be briefing members of congress later today. there are questions being raised about how well the fbi tracked them and of course, the lack of

coordination between the russian security services and the fbi, which has been pretty notorious. >> yeah, i think this, congress will want to have some hearings on this. there probably are maybe larger questions for the entire intelligence community about how you handle these things and whether the protocols set up right are the right ones. but the fbi was never in a sense tracking him after they, after they did their interview with tamerlan, went back to the russians and said -- we've looked into his past. we don't find anything here. what else can you give us? and that they never got a response from the russians. so after that, the fbi closed its case. and had no, they claim, no legal authority to reopen it or do anything further. >> pete, i want to show you also i know you've been tracking what happened with the carjacking victim. when dzhokhar went to his atm to take out money. we've got new images of that. as you can see, very clearly. going into that, going to that atm.

as the carjacking victim described it. took the car and rode with him to the atm. and then made his escape. >> there's some reference to this, to these pictures in the fbi's affidavit that they released yesterday. and what the carjacking victim has told the police is and other authorities, is that they went to three different atms. the first time they didn't get the password entered right. the second time they got $800. and the third time, when they tried to get more money, the atm said you've exceeded the limit for the day. yeah, go ahead. >> now i also want to ask you, i know local authorities have said they found no connection between this unsolved 2011 murder case, but that they were looking into it at least to see whether there was any connection to tamerlan tsarnaev since he did know one of the victims in that case. >> what the authorities said there is that they, the case has never been closed. that they will see what comes out of the investigation into the bombing. to see if there are further things that would shed some

light on those triple homicides. but the authorities up there have also said that they think that the association between tamerlan and one of these victims has been overplayed. that they have looked into this. so they, they say that you know, they'll certainly take another look at this. but it's not like to them it has shed brand new light on it. >> and finally, how significant do you think the canadian sting operation was, which they said was an al qaeda-inspired operation? >> well first of all, we should emphasize that everybody has said both the canadians and u.s. authorities, that this has no connection to what happened in boston. >> absolutely. >> but the authorities say they believe this was the real deal. that these two men came to canada to plot an attack on a train. and the canadian version of amtrak on a passenger train from new york to toronto. and they say these two men were out looking at the trains, trying to study them. but that the authorities up there were tipped off by members of the muslim community.

and that they had these two under surveillance. that it never got to the actual operational stage. and that they decided to shut it down. but they claim that these men were getting what they called guidance and direction from al qaeda in iran. >> which is the most surprising factor, iran has denied this, we don't know of relationships, of al qaeda which is sunni, in iran, which is shiite. so that has been surprising and there have been denials from overseas as well. pete, thank you very much. >> you bet. >> thanks for all. as the fbi faces questions over its handling of tamerlan tsarnaev's two years ago in inquiry, authorities are taking a closer look now at his travels in dagestan, russia, a region plagued by islamist militants. much of the tsarnaev family lives in dagestan and they're expected to meet today with russian security services. tamerlan tsarnaev's mother insists her sons are innocent. >> what happened is is a

terrible thing, but i know that my kids have nothing to do with this. i know it. >> nbc's andrea hmong joins me from dagestan where the parents live. what is the neighborhood, the relatives, the extended family saying? we know what the mother says, she denies completely. >> good day, andrea, there's divided opinion in the neighborhood. obviously there is one camp that believes that, that finds it hard to believe that any of this could be true. a lot of it is actually based on what they think they know of the father, or the parents rather than the son. the younger son hasn't been here. and tamerlan wasn't seen around the neighborhood where the father keeps an apartment. which is where the interview with the mother was shot. and then there are other people who are very distressed by what's happened. they don't really know how to make sense of it. but they you know, they extend their condolences to the people of boston, to the people of the

u.s. one of the really tricky things is that it's been hard to pin down a lot of details, even when you actually talk to the family. the mother and the father don't give the same versions of what they think happened to their sons. we asked the father about a report that the mother had apparently given to some journalists about how the last conversation she had with tamerlan, the son, had he said mom, i'm being shot at, i'm being chased, i'm being harassed by the fbi. well we asked the father last night during our interview with him, ha did that mean? did he hear about this? he didn't seem to know what we were talking about. the mother, however, has confirmed that this is what her son was telling her. that he was being chased. there were also discrepancies about how many times the fbi in the u.s. actually approached them. the father said they visited once. but there have been reports that the fbi apparently came to them four or five times. so it's very hard to get the

family, understandably very shaken and distraught and confused by what's been happening, to get them on the same page. >> and of course, the mother is in some part reflecting, we believe, what her sons told her over the years. and that may or may not be accurate. because we don't know what communication was really based in reality. what the fbi had told us is there was one inquiry. but she says that the sons told her that they were coming repeatedly. we also don't know really pea sizely where tamerlan was for that six months. how much of the time he spent with relatives, how much of the time he may have spent in the region, a region popular with recruiters. >> we don't. we have heard that he went to a mosque here in the capital of dagestan. this mosque has a questionable history. it's a place where they have done regular clean-up campaigns. they have arrested people in one

sweep up. there were 100 to 200 people detained, according to a man who a is security adviser to the government, both to dagestan and to the kremlin. on the other hand, there are a lot of people who attend the mosque who are completely innocent. who feel that they are consistently harassed. but it's not clear to us and we've been trying to talk to people, people say they sort of remember seeing tamerlan there. but they haven't actually identified who he was talking to. nobody has been able to come forward with a picture of how he spent his time. certainly not in that mosque. his aunt who did see quite a bit of him last year when he was visiting in dagestan, said that he told her he was going to pray every day at the mosque. andrea? >> andrea mong in dagestan. thank you for your reporting. new york senator kirsten gillenbrand had a bright idea one night while on air force one. why not have the president invite all the women senators over for dinner. as of tonight, it's happening,

18 of the 20 women senators have accepted. all four republicans, only new hampshire senator, jean shaheen reclined because of a previous commitment and the only one not coming is heidi heitkamp, who voted no to the gun background checks. this sounds like a fun dinner at the white house, have you heard whether senator heidi heitkamp is going to be able to attend as well? >> i certainly hope so. the idea is just after the last election i was on aboard air force one with the president because he was coming to see the victims of hurricane and super storm sandy. i said now in a you're starting your new term, if you want to create a bipartisan agenda, a great place to start is with the women senators. oftentimes the women are the wunsz to reach across party lines, find consensus and create bipartisan support for common-sense measures.

he said that's a great idea. instead of going to one of your dinners, i'll have you come to the white house. so i'm so grateful that he decided to invite us, i think today is a time of great need for bipartisanship. we've just seen guns not go in the direction we needed it to go. we have immigration on deck. we have a tough economy still in front of us that we need solutions for. and i think the women can very much be part of that debate in bringing it forward. >> i've always been struck by the fact that even when there weren't 20, that the women senators have always bonded across party lines. and across ideological lines. i know that lisa murkowsky's vote against gun background checks was a big disappointment to many of you and she was supposed to be the host of tonight's get-together until it was moved to the white house. and heidi heitkamp, how difficult might that conversation with with the white house. we told that the white house was very angry with her to have voted against the background checks. >> you know, andrea, both heidi

heitkamp and lisa murkowsky voted for the gun trafficking bill. there was a measure that they were willing to support to end gun trafficking, straw purchasing, pro enforcement measures. so i think there's bipartisan support for these bills, i think we can find consensus going forward and we have to work a little harder. i find the women to be very open to these issues and time and time again the women senators have come together and passed measures overwhelmingly. in the last armed services authorization bill, kelly ayotte was the last one to vote with us, but she voted for this autism amendment to make sure that members of the military who have children with autism could get the treatments they needed. that was 100%, all 17 women voted for that bill during that authorization. and i think there will be future measures like this, that we need to focus on, whether it's immigration or the economy. i think the women are open to crafting legislation, finding common ground and getting things done. >> i want to ask you about one of your big issues, you've heard

hearings on the sexual assault issues. and there are, is a new report that one in five female service members have faced an unwanted sexual contact. what have we learned from the hearings so far and what can be done? and is this a subject that you're going to be raising tonight? >> yes. it's an issue that you know, it's not new, andrea. we've had sexual assaults in the military forever. and what the new report, the d.o.d. published found is that one in five women are receiving unwanted sexual contact and also 3.3% of men. so this is a very severe problem that's undermining not just the integrity of the military, but our military readiness. we need to make sure that all of our best and brightest, are strong, capable and not being undermined from attacks within their own ranks. so the review that we're focused on, many of the women senators on a bipartisan basis, we're going to get to the bottom who have you we change the culture in the military. how we create a bottom-up and top-down strategy that can actually address the problem and

not just say zero tolerance. but zero occurrence. how do we end sexual assault, violence and rape within the military amongst our ranks? that is something that i am dedicated to doing. and i think with this facts of this report, we can begin to address the problem and show how pervasive it is as a way to seek out new solutions. >> i also want to give you a chance to respond to criticism that maureen doud and others have expressed on the president's leadership on some of these tough issues on his legislative strategy, he gives great speeches, the state of the union speech, the appeal, give us a vote on guns. going up to newtown repeatedly and helping to mobilize the families. but that there isn't enough follow-up at the granular level to frankly strong-arm members maybe on the fence. do you think that the white house needs to be more aggressive? led by the president? >> i think what the president is doing right now is the smart approach. i think engaging senators directly one-on-one makes a huge

difference. i think the dinners he's had with the republican senators to talk about the economy, to talk about the budget, to talk about issues like immigration, really matters and i think the more he engages senators one-on-one, he will cultivate support and find common ground himself. and i think that is the art of governing. i think he is working very hard towards that end. and i think the dinner tonight is also a step in the right direction. i truly believe, if you want a bipartisan core for pretty much anything, if you start with the women, you've got a great cross-section of america and great advocates for the kind of reforms that this nation needs. >> well i'm not going to disagree with that, thank you very much senator enjoy the dinner tonight. look forward to a report. and a private funeral is going to be held today for m.i.t. police officer sean collier. police say that the 27-year-old was the victim of a vicious assassination by the boston bombing suspects. collier's sibling spoke exclusively with the "today show's" savannah guthrie.

>> i this ink we're coping as best as we possibly can. we're a very large and close family. we've sort of rallied together at our parents' house, spending time together and trying to remember the best parts about sean. >> now you know, through his death, i really realize how good of a person he was. and i wish i could have told him that while he was still here. >> tomorrow, vice president joe biden and dr. jill biden are going to be traveling to cambridge to attend a public memorial service for collier on the m.i.t. campus. which is mourning his loss. er ] from the way the bristles move to the way they clean, once you try an oral-b deep sweep power brush, you'll never go back to a regular manual brush. its three cleaning zones with dynamic power bristles reach between teeth with more brush movements to remove up to 100% more plaque than a regular manual brush. and even 76% more plaque than sonicare flexcare in hard to reach areas. oral-b deep sweep 5000 power brush. life opens up when you do. oral-b deep sweep 5000 power brush.

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boston transit police are being applauded for their role in the pursuit of the marathon bombers. >> there was gun fight around

the boat and other personnel from our department that were on scene were shot, shot at from the boat. we were moving up to the boat he was actually laying down on the side of the boat, one leg out, one hand out and as we got closer that's when he kind of came out of the boat and we were able to effect the arrest. >> joining me now is congressman bill keating from massachusetts, a former d.a. himself, thank you very much for joining us. we saw today for the first time some surveillance video of the encounter with the suspects. the shoot-out from thursday night in watertown. which indicate that it looked as though both suspects were outside of the car. can you shed any light on that? because we had been told that only one was. this was the hijacked car. >> i saw, i did see the videos that the person took from the third floor of his home, it showed indeed both of the suspects outside their car. and somewhere in the vicinity of 280 to 300 rounds were shot by them. it's a frightening sight.

>> this would change at least the initial narrative that we've been told. is there any way to clarify what did the fbi know about, about tamerlan tsarnaev during the initial interview in 2011? was there only one interview, as the fbi has said? in contradiction to what may or may not have been told to the mother. understandably there's confusion in dagestan. >> yeah, there's been informal briefings that have occurred during the day, there will be a briefing for all members in a little over four hours from now. by the counterterrorism center. by the fbi and by homeland security. and undoubtedly that will be the issue that comes forth. it will be the issue, did this fall somehow between the cracks, is this something that we have to change procedures on? is this something that we want to know what the information is from the russian government, how they were able to obtain it. what it said and how that was conveyed to the fbi and if indeed there was a lapse or

something that has to be changed. >> from what you know now, was there any, any problem that relates to procedures for immigration for going in and out of the country? and what janet napolitano testified to today on the senate side is there was a pinging when he left the country, despite the misspelling of his name. but that because the fbi case on him had expired, by the time he returned six months later, there was no notification. >> you know, one of the issues that we have, and we've had this before in front of our homeland security committee is the inability of us to follow through on visas. particularly the people frankly unlike this situation, that came to this country, and their time has run out and there hasn't been a follow-up. so that's a matter of concern and that's a matter that will be followed through. as we look at the immigration issue as a whole. it's going to be an issue that's going to be addressed. >> thank you so much. we should point out you are in

copley and we believe it's reopened and things are getting back to some semblance of -- >> the streets here, the streets here are opening up. but and going back to normal. but as we look at the memorials and the funerals for the victims, that will take quite some time and for the families, never will be the time they come back to normal. >> indeed. thank you very much, congressman, thanks for taking the time today. and only moments ago, the attorneys for katherine russell spoke to the media. russell is the widow of bombing suspect, tamerlan tsarnaev. >> the injuries and loss of life to people who came to celebrate a race and a holiday has caused profound distress and sorrow to katie and her family. the reports of involvement by her husband and brother-in-law came as an absolute shock to them all.

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if you've tried to fly this week, you know there's a growing frustration at major national airports all week. delays of up to three hours for some travelers as furloughs for air traffic controllers has caused by sequester cuts. are now extending the average time at the terminal. joining me now is maryland congressman, chris van hollen, ranking member on the house budget committee. the sequester really does have an impact and the furloughs are kicking in and we're feeling it

at the airports. what can be done? >> well, it does, andrea, these sequester cuts, deep and immediate, across-the-board cuts were bound to have an impact. it was never going to be the fact that the sky was going to fall the day after the sequester took place. but what we're seeing now and will continue to see is the slow grind on the economy. disruption at places like airports and according to the nonpartisan congressional budget office, 750,000 fewer american jobs at the end of the year. how do we deal with it? we should replace the sequester with a more targeted, smart way to reduce the deficit over a longer period of time that accomplishes the same deficit reduction without hurting the economy. i've tried to offer that proposal for an up or down vote four times this year and have not even had the ability to get a vote on that, andrea. >> mitch mcconnell said today, this is all because of the poor planning of the administration. your take on it? >> well, you've got now

republicans who just a few weeks ago were cheering on the idea of a sequester. and saying that we had to make these very deep, immediate cuts, on top by the way. of cuts that we already made two years ago. very deep cuts, but cuts that are manageable. but our republican colleagues said we got to keep the sequester in place, their budget calls for a doubling of the sequester cuts in the areas of the budget we're talking about. the faa, the fbi, national institutes of health. the best way that mitch mcconnell and republicans can help us deal with this, is to support our legislation that would replace the sequester in a balanced and targeted way. >> we all hear about budget cuts and maybe some jurisdictions are blame things on the sequester. but just the other night i heard from a former senate staffer, she's a mom, two little girls, about deep cuts which are shutting down right here in the district of columbia, all the musical, music and art teaching

in a particular school, a very special school. so are jurisdictions beginning to blame this on the sequester? is this really the sequester kicking in? >> well, look, there's no free lunch at the end of the day. the reality is, we can and should make cuts wherever possible. if there's waste in the budget, it should be eliminated, we should find efficiencies. but as i indicated, two years ago we cut over $1.2 trillion from this whole portion of the budget. that goes to things like head start. that goes to early education. that goes to special education. so if you're doing a whole 'nother round of immediate deep cuts, it's bound to have a negative impact. and that's exactly why, andrea. we proposed this alternative, a way where you can make more targeted cuts. but also eliminate some of the special interests tax breaks that disproportionately benefit a very wealthy people. and unfortunately, today, our colleagues refused to come together to negotiate that.

in fact, today earlier today, over in the senate, harry reid, the democratic leader simply asked for permission to go to conference on the budget. and the republican leadership in both the senate and the house right now is refusing to appoint conferrees. having called over the last two years for us to go through the regular order on the budget, they're now standing in the way of moving forward to bridge those differences on the budget. in fact i'm introducing a resolution later today simply to call upon the house to move forward in a transparent way, to negotiate these differences on the budget. >> thank you, congressman and i know you would not say that music and art is an extra, that that is music and art education for the kids in the district of columbia, is an essential part of an education. just to make the point. >> these are very important parts of a kid's well-rounded

education. and you're going to see this kind of disruption, andrea, in all walks of american life. whether it's on first responders, not getting grants for fire departments and first responders. whether it's the fbi, whether it's air traffic controllers. again, we can and should and have made cuts. but these very deep and immediate cuts are both disruptive to specific programs, but also, a big drag on the economy. at a time when we need to put more people to work, not less. >> thank you, congressman. thanks very much. thank you. and 35-year veteran montana senator max baucus chair of the powerful finance committee, surprised the political world today by saying he is not running for another term next year. the announcement comes only one week after baucus went against the party, against the overwhelming majority of democrats, his colleagues and voted against background checks. joining me now for our daily fix

is chris cillizza, msnbc contributor and managing editor of postpolitics.com. i want to talk to you about baucus, this update in from casey hunt on the hill for us, that senator shaheen's office now says that she will be attending. 19 of the 20 women senators are attending, waiting to hear from heidi heitkamp, perhaps has a slight problem in facing the president after voting against the background checks. in any case, senator baucus, this is is a resignation, which is being greeted by in some quarters, by more liberal or progressive democrats, with glee. because they didn't like his more conservative votes and his dragging feet, they felt, in fact on the writing of obama care. >> let's start with the gun vote, andrea, that you mentioned. max baucus was asked why he voted against background checks. and gave a one-word answer, montana. which made everyone, including myself, believe that he was running for re-election. that this was about his politics

in a state. trace it back to health care. i asked him, is there a less popular democratic senator in the white house than max baucus. there aren't a lot. if there are any, this is someone who has been a bur in the side of the white house, particularly on health care. the way in which the health care debate played out. baucus was someone who wanted to control the bill. the white house sort of of ceded it to him and then it looked like it wasn't going to be what they wanted it led to a vast story in 2009-2010, the battle over health care. max baucus was at the heart of that. i would say just very quickly, andrea, five of the six democratic committee chairman in the senate are retiring. if that doesn't tell you something about the nature of the senate changing, that it's not a place they want to be, five of the six committee chairman and that's something that these people wait lifetimes for, they are all retiring in 2014. five of the six up in 2014. remarkable. >> and quick word on brian

schweitzer. is it likely that he could be recruited to run? hes is very popular. >> he is someone who has made a lot of comments about how he doesn't want to ever be in washington. remember two things, one he's not doing anything right now. he's the former governor and two, he ran for the senate almost won. he ran for the senate in 2000. i always say, past runs are indicators of future interest. he's run once before for the senate. i think he probably runs again. he's clearly democrat's best candidate. >> okay, thank you and we'll be right back.

he said they were acting out a desire to defend islam and in particular because of u.s. wars in iraq and afghanistan. that that was a big motivating factor in their desire to commit which bombing and probably thirdly, most significantly. the question is, does the fbi believe them. and so far, from an examination of the cell phones and emails that they've gotten from the computer, they have not found any indication of taking direction from others. communications with others that would suggest that there was a larger conspiracy here. that's far from conclusive at this point. the investigation is clearly ongoing. but so far it appears they found no immediate evidence of others involvement. and thirdly, i should tell you, fourthly, as an indication that this investigation is very active and ongoing, i've just come from the mosque in cambridge, where the tsarnaevs were occasional attendees and in one case, in the case of the older brother, had been

disruptive. the fbi has begun investigating members of the congregation, people who were witnesses to the disruptions, to see if they can verify both whether he was coming from and indeed, whether anybody else might have been an accomplice. >> and ann thompson, you've been talking to officials there, the hospitals have updated the numbers of people injured. some people are going to the hospital after feeling more pain and having more medical problems in the days following the bombing? >> andrea, that's right. the boston public health commission says that the number of injured has jumped from 170, to 264. and those additional people who now claim they were injured during the marathon, these are not serious injuries. they are largely minor injuries. today, there are some 48 people who remain hospitalized, eight days after the bombing. but the biggest news here in boston this afternoon, andrea, is the fact that store keepers and residents on boylston street

who is been out of their businesses and homes for more than a week, are getting a chance to go back in and assess the damage. and take a look at just what has happened. to their businesses and homes in those eight days. and i was down there talking to some of the store owners, they're very anxious to get back. they say their employees are very anxious to get back. there's not a lot of fear that another terrorist attack would happen. they just want life to get back to normal. they say going to work, living in their own homes, is a big step to getting things back to normal here, andrea. >> i'm sure it is. ann thompson, michael isikoff, thank you so much from boston and we'll be right back. rrrrr! when i'm hungry, i feel like i want to faint. this is my hungry monster. one in six americans struggle with hunger every single day. if i could stop hunger, i would definitely do it. [ male announcer ] let's growl back at hunger. during april, stock up at walmart on select groceries marked with the child hunger ends here red pushpin and you'll be contributing to food banks in your own community.

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sign up for your free trial today at constantcontact.com/try. investigators of course are trying to understand why the boston bombing suspects became followers of radical slalom. what if any lessens can we learn from their journey to the dark side? david rode is a pulitzer prize-winning author and the author of "beyond war"

reimagining american influence in a new middle east. david, thanks for coming back. we want to have a deeper discussion about this. we you were on npr with diane reem. you were on politics and prose, a well-known independent book store, you'll be at barnes & noble tonight in new york. the questions that people are asking you are all about boston and they're very hostile. they're really from audiences would you never expect. not understanding either islam or how aberrant this behavior is. >> obviously one of the things that could come out of this is a dialogue nationally. there's a lot of suspicion about islam out there. so many of these questions are, this is an evil religion. it is inherently violent. it is anti-woman and anti-american. and what i know from 20 years in the region and what i'm writing about in the book is there's another side of islam. i was kidnapped by extremists i can understand that mentality.

i was able to escape with the help of moderates. >> moderate muslims? yes, they exist. >> and helped you get away from the pakistani taliban? >> yes and saudi arabia spread a very ill tolerant interpretations of islam. there are other societies that are not so radical. and i think many american muslims are horrified by what's happened. i was in louisville, kentucky, when the brothers were identified and there was a sense of shame and fear in the community there. that all of their efforts to be part of the community to help people understand their faith were shattered in this attack in boston. >> what can we do in the media, what can our leaders do to try to explain, amplify and get that message out? >> i think actually american muslim leaders need to get out and talk in the media. there have been condemnations of the attacks in boston. >> i think they're afraid, aren't they? >> they are afraid. they should talk, we should have a dialogue.

the media should interview them more. one man who let me interview him had his mom call him and say, why did you give your name. he'll be hated by american who is fear muslims and jihadis will attack his family in pakistan. he said america was a safe haven where he as could wage this war against conservative muslims from the safety of the u.s. and he said that he wanted to redouble his efforts to reach out to young muslims that radicals are doing a much better job of reaching out to young muslims and he knows that moderates need to do a much more aggressive effort in that area. >> we heard from muslim leader at the interfaith service the other day, in boston. we heard after 9/11 president bush brought imams to the ceremonies. we've had moments. it was only well after 9/11 that all this anger boiled over. >> it's true. to be fair to americans, this

was a terrifically horrible attack. i feel for the people of boston. i lived outside of boston. my brother was a police officer outside boston. my stepfather practiced law in these two towns where these men carried these things out. it is horrible and hard for us. i feel that jihadists want to us blame all muslims. pizza religious war. but there is a responsibility. american muslims need to come out more. these people in louisville hold open houses in their mosques so people can see what they do and it is not so shrouded in mystery. more broadly speaking, when we look at the middle east, people see chaos. >> which you've tried to explain in beyond war. you look through the arab spring and you take it country by country. there are big differences in the way tonig way they see them. >> there is this epic struggle for power and for control between conservative muslims. some of them are very violent

and more liberal secular ones. and frankly, we need to do a better job of seeing that, what's happening. it is not chaos. this is a very real power struggle and figure out how can we help those moderates. we are less dependent on energy from the middle east. the chinese economy will depend on that oil from the middle east and so does europe. i want, i wish we could walk away from the region but we can't for economic reasons. >> as we all know, oil, energy, it is a global resource. so price differentials elsewhere affect what's happening here. we're all part of the same global economy. thank you very much, congratulations on the book. you'll be at barnes and noble in new york on the upper west side tonight. i hope you get a lot of good questions. >> there have been great questions. this is good questions to ask. a very important dialogue to have. >> we'll be right back. ♪ if loving you is wrong

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that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow us online and on twitter. my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next. >> great to see you. we're following a lot of news in the hour. several developing stories first on the boston bombings, the attorney who helped prosecute timothy mcveigh will join us to discuss the latest developments in the case against dzhokhar tsarnaev. plus, news on those ricin tainted letters sent to the president and senators last week. officials confirm the suspect has been released from jail free on bond. we'll have the very latest. and a judge has now dropped several of the charges against a philadelphia abortion doctor accused of killing babies that were born alive. we'll have the latest information on that case.

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